Rafael Jodar reached his seventh quarter-final in his last eight tournaments following a 6-3 6-3 victory over Jiri Lehecka in the round of 16 at the Canadian Open.
The 19-year-old breakout star, who has reached quarter-finals at Madrid, Rome and Roland-Garros this year, as well as finishing as the Washington Open runner-up last week, produced another impressive display against the eighth seed in Montreal.
He only needed 74 minutes to seal victory, controlling the baseline exchanges with power and accuracy.
Jodar also benefited from Lehecka’s inconsistency, with the Czech committing 34 unforced errors and firing in only 11 winners, compared to the Spaniard’s 14 winners and 10 unforced errors.
“I’m super happy with my performance today,” Jodar said. “I have been playing a lot of matches, especially in the past few weeks.
“I am trying to go match by match, knowing that every match is difficult and I have to play very well in all the matches, because everyone plays differently.”
Jodar will now face Arthur Fils for a semi-final place, after the Frenchman beat Cameron Norrie 6-2 7-6 (10-8) in his own round-of-16 match.
Another Frenchman, Arthur Rinderknech, lost in three sets to Brandon Nakashima, who will take on Luciano Darderi in the last eight after the Italian overcame Nuno Borges.
Teenage sensation Jodar makes history
Saturday’s match was Jodar’s 50th at ATP Tour-level, and he has won 35 of those.
That is the outright most victories by any player under the age of 20 in their first 50 career matches, surpassing John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Andrei Medvedev and Guillermo Perez Roldan.
Jodar has 33 victories this year, with only Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev (44 each) claiming more wins on the Tour in 2026 (Tommy Paul also 33).
He will face a tough test against Fils, though, as his 14 victories at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments this year are the third-most of any player, behind Sinner (29) and Zverev (18).
